Vaeliorin

That would be really cool. I'd be behind that. Not so much the axe thing (I'd just use a T6 crafting mod, as those requirements are way too annoying and might eventually require doing T5s which I just have no desire to do.)

As long as the basics (water filters, honey/antibiotics) didn't require bartering specific items, it'd be okay, I guess. Not sure how it would make questing less op or exploration more incentivized (unless you restricted loot to specific POIs.) Granted, I don't generally buy anything other than filters and recipes/magazines from the traders.

I can already do that. The zombies aren't really a threat, more of an annoyance. Granted, I bought the game mostly for the building and tower defense aspects. I actually don't like FPS games at all.

If you just wanted to explore and build, it would be fine to turn it off. I've often considered turning off all zombies except for horde nights, because I don't particularly see any benefit to them during the rest of the week.

Might be caused if you got dropped from the server basically immediately after logging in. I know in single player if you exit the game before the quest pops (which takes some pretty quick reflexes, admittedly) when you try and go back into the game, you don't get the quest. Never played multiplayer, but I imagine the same sort of thing happens.

I've used random POIs as starter bases, but since I primarily enjoy building, using one as a permanent base wouldn't be that fun for me unless I basically ripped it apart and completely rebuilt it. That said, while I do occasionally get unsuspected blocks broken doing things like that, they're never anything critical. All you have to do is block off the top of a staircase, and the zombies are basically done for, assuming they have no other way to get to you. As for not using blocks that create falls, I usually avoid them. Pretty much the only time I use them is when I want to create a zombie blender where they fall through a dozen or so blade traps after I knock them off/ragdoll them. I could theoretically have more challenge by doing a base with no traps, but then that's not really tower defense any longer either, is it? I want bases that will fail. But I want it to be because my design didn't work, not because I built it to fail.

I could see this happening on a server with a number of people on it, where the zombie cap was already reached, so when you logged in it couldn't spawn any zombies near you. Though if the other players were killing zombies (definitely not guaranteed) I'd think you'd slowly get some to spawn.

I was mostly referring to the set items and apparently having the bonus numbers randomized (though that was a long time ago they talked about that and I don't know if that's still the plan.) I was mostly thinking of farming for "perfect" items, which I suppose you can already do now to an extent. Diablo was mostly the first thing that came to mind where you can try and farm the same items over and over hoping for a better version to drop.

Sure, and the tower defense is the primary reason I bought the game. I'd been following the game for years, and thought that if they ever added mechanical traps I'd buy it. They did, and I did. I actually hate first person shooters. But I'd like to have to make an effort to set up my killbox, instead of it being basically effortless. I want to be able to try different things without knowing that they'll work. That's the real killer to me, that the AI is so predictable I don't even have to test a base design to know if it will work. As for being able to survive any horde night in a wooden base, I'm not saying that's a base I would or do use, I'm just saying I could build a base to do it (knowing how to avoid rage mode and that there are blocks zombies will try and walk across that they just fall through.) And I'd certainly agree with your last point about a cube not being tower defense.

Sure, but the number of people I've seen talk about spending hundreds of days in a single world probably numbers in the single digits. Most people seem to start over/quit once they've got top tier gear and an unassailable horde base, which doesn't take all that long unless you play very slowly. I too prefer the later days, and I don't expect any sort of MMO style end game (though from what I've read about the new armor sets, it looks like a Diablo-esque end game is going to be a thing.) I just wish there was some sort of challenge to the later part of the game beyond just me fiddling with aesthetics for hours on end.

I had hundreds of hours in A16.4, and I only once had a (final) base that functioned how I wanted (my starter bases all functioned, but they were all basically the same, just something to get me through the first few horde nights.) All the dozens of others failed in some way (not that they were breached as I tend to overbuild things, just that they didn't function how I wanted.) Only once had a base fail after A17, and that was because I wasn't aware they changed the distance that zombies would path, so they all ended up attacking the rear of my base instead of pathing around to the front. The point is, zombie behavior was only exploitable with bases that weren't at ground level in A16.4 (because it was basically just run straight toward you, you could even get them to throw themselves off massive drops. In fact, it was a bit of challenge to keep them from doing so, requiring something to slow them down enough that they'd recalculate their pathing, which took a while). If all they'd done to the AI was make them aware of height/added rage mode if they couldn't reach the player vertically and fixed the spinning in place bug, I think the zombie AI would be much more fun than it currently is. At this point, I'm fairly certain that I could make an all wooden base that could survive basically any horde night, and that makes horde night kinda pointless, in my view.

Yeah, I imagine they were looking for content that would make the game last past day 30 or so (if that long.) The longest I think I've ever gone in a world is around 50 days (admittedly, I play 2 hour days), and the last 36 or so were almost entirely spent gathering resources and building (well, I also spent 4-5 in game days looking for a nice place to build. Found a place on a lake with snowy mountains in the background, it was beautiful.)

I had the opposite experience. In A16 I'd try all different kinds of base designs to see if they work, trying to get the zombies to behave how I wanted. Since A17, I know how they'll work, and they all end up basically the same, funneling the zombies into an intended killzone. Where there problems with the A16 AI? Of course there were. Building a stilt base or an underground base would completely break the zombie AI. I'd have preferred an update that gave them vertical awareness but didn't make them brilliant structural engineers who always go to the weakest point.

I think you have to be in debug mode for it to work

By the by, I've definitely encountered the hop phenomenon before. In my mind it happens when I don't fully depress the space bar, but I've never tested it or anything. Even with maxed parkour it was less than a full unperked jump.

The real limiting factor on how quickly you can jump is how quickly you land. I can't imagine anyone so slow at spamming space that they couldn't immediately jump again after landing.

They've intentionally nerfed the use of axes as weapons. There was a period where they were just as (if not more) effective as the normal melee weapons, and apparently people were foregoing using a normal melee weapon for the axe, since it saved them an inventory slot, and The Fun Pimps didn't like that.

I suppose. I just go through tools at a voracious rate (usually multiple repairs per trip) so I'd basically never have access to the best tools I can make, which I would find pretty frustrating. I'd totally be willing to do it for weapons (maybe not armor...military armor parts are abundant, but steel armor parts are also super rare in my experience) but tools would really bug me.

If you didn't start within viewing distance of the trader most of the time, I might be willing to cancel the find the trader quest, but I'm not giving up my 4 points. That was one of the nice things about A16, you started off in the middle of nowhere and just picked a direction until you found a road (I usually looked for the highest point around) then followed the road until you found a town.

Honestly, it depends when the steam sales are. They seem to be timing releases with the steam sales the last couple of years.

Honestly, given how rare steel tool parts are, I don't know how you can really do no repair. It's usually weeks after I can make max level steel tools before I have enough to make an axe, let alone a shovel (though why would you?), and forget ever making a ratchet. I guess if you use the chainsaw/auger it might not be so bad (those parts seem much more common) but I hate them and never use them except sometimes the auger if I need to remove some concrete/steel blocks I don't want where they are anymore.

I believe there are mods that will reduce it down to just clicking a button (or maybe picking up some stone? I've never used them.) Personally, I appreciate them because I can never find nests or stone on the ground until I don't need it anymore, since I seem to be blind in the early game for some reason.

I gotta admit, I miss LBD. Valmod back in A16.4 had my favorite progression system in the game, where you had learn by doing for basically everything, and as you progressed in skills you unlocked new recipes. I don't recall exactly what effected quality (whether it was a skill or a perk...I think a perk) and it had some issues since you can only get xp from workstations if you've got the workstation open when something finishes crafting. Still, it was my favorite version of 7D2D.

The reason, as I understand it, is because of Microsoft (though I thought they decided not to get rid of the steam mod folder function). The game is on Gamepass and the Microsoft store, and they don't let you alter the files in the game folder, from what I've been told.

Guns, sure. The changes to stamina have made using a melee weapon outside of what you've specced into an exercise in frustration/futility.